31 May 2011

As I've mentioned before, I try to be like my mom every time I go out couponing (well, in plenty of other ways too)! She is pretty much the master. But unfortunately for her, she doesn't live around a Harris Teeter, so never gets to experience the triple couponing magic. Well this weekend our local grocery (in Indiana - or maybe just in my family, we just say grocery - not "grocery store" and no, it's not weird) Marsh, had a TRIPLE COUPON event and my mom was thrilled. When she spends half the year in FL they don't even double coupons ever (collective GASP!). She says they are trying to take it to the old geezers down in FL! Haha. Classic.

This is her haul!...(on her first trip! She went back again a few days later for some extras, obv)

She scored over $150 worth of products for $20. She is downright impressive.

I have to go to the grocery tonight, and am confused by the thought that there is no coupon event. No Super Double. No Triple. So just NORMAL?! How am I supposed to survive like this? :) I'll just have to start a countdown and wait until next month. But sadly, I can't wait until then for food.

27 May 2011

Why haven't I been blogging this week? Well...me and my BFF have been way too busy pricing, organizing and gathering goods for our EPIC yard sale tomorrow. We've also been remaining stationary, just in case any movement could be construed as a rain dance! So all of you out there, please, think good (DRY) thoughts for no rain tomorrow!

For any of you DC locals, I expect to see you there! We have TONS of stuff. Both my BFF and I have already SPENT more than we have made (which is $0) as we keep finding things our friends bring that we want to buy. Best purchase (ever?!) was a rotating room fan for $4! It already has a permanent spot in our poorly insulated (read: HOT) home.

23 May 2011

As I mentioned before, buying wedding gifts for all of your friends can be EXPENSIVE. So I am always trying to think of more ways to save money. Now this is sort of a work-around, and isn't exactly saving so much as using what you have.

I know that credit cards aren't for everyone - and if you aren't good at managing your money or keeping within a budget, then don't get credit cards! But if you DO have one, make sure you have one that gives you some type of rewards. My roommate has one that gives her 5% cash back on all purchases - and it's amazing and no longer offered due to that incredible rate. JEALOUS.

I like it well enough, I'm not sure I have the best one, but it works for me! So they have a rewards system called ThankYou Points. In the past, I would cash in for a $50 Banana Republic or Gap Gift Card, knowing that I would eventually spend it there, and I will always buy clothes. But then I realized, I don't really "need" to spend money on clothes (currently), but I do HAVE to spend money on wedding gifts. I checked out their full list of reward gift cards and realized that they have tons of cards available for the places I needed to buy gifts from registrys!

So the last time I had saved up enough points, I cashed in for a $100 Bed, Bath and Beyond Gift Card, so it was MUCH less painful when I went to the register. A $146 purchase (after the use of the 20% off coupons - obv!), became only actually $46 out of pocket. This is just a small way you can sort of use what you already "have" on more important things than a new pair of jeans from the Gap...(wait, I love jeans...crap!)

Again, I would LOVE to hear other ideas on how to save money buying wedding gifts for friends!

20 May 2011

So evidently, a lot of people like reading how insane I am for hunting down the deals at Harris Teeter! It's sort of awesome, but sort of frightening now that my full load of crazy has been exposed to the interenet world :)

For any of you newcomers - check out some of my other posts to see more awesome ways to save money, get free stuff, and even MAKE money.

19 May 2011

So as you may have heard (from my hoots and hollers!), it is Harris Teeter Triple Coupons right now! So I did some planning, made my list, and organized my coupons (as you can see below) and headed out, after a long day of counting down the hours! And if you are thinking, "wow, this girl is insane" -- I agree, and am aware. Look how thick my stack of coupons was!

As you may have read in the Harris Teeter Coupon Policy, you are only allowed 20 coupons per day, per card. That would just not do with the load I was planning to take home. So I borrowed my trusty friend's Harris Teeter Card (again, yes, I know how insane this sounds) and headed off. Brace yourself, this is epic. These are all of the items that I got for FREE!

I felt this side didn't get enough glory in the group post. Look at all that sauce!

This is an insane amount of...everything. Luckily, most of it is non-perishable, so I will give/force it upon friends, use it, or save it for a food drive! And my roommate or I will actually use most of this stuff. Probably not 4 bottles of hot sauce immediately...but maybe eventually?

Here are the items that I actually paid for (but had coupons - of course!)

A lot of people probably think this took me hours - it did not! With my list, I was in and out of there in about 1 hour. Well worth the time!

My cashier was a real stickler, she checked that every coupon was valid (which it was), but she was extremely helpful and didn't mind when I asked to do two separate transactions. As you can see below, I saved nearly the identical amounts on both transactions.

I got over $108 worth of groceries for $15! Incredible. I can't wait for the next TRIPLE COUPON event, even if I have to wait another year. I would love to hear about your trips! I always love finding other deals people have found...even if it would make me want to go back again today. Luckily (to save me from full on crazy), I fly back home to Indiana tonight for wedding 2/6...so another trip isn't possible :)

17 May 2011

It seems that my blog is turning into a Harris Teeter focused extravaganza. If that is the case, I apologize for those that live states away from a Harris Teeter. But for those of you that do live close, I hope that you are as excited as I am! I spent at least an hour on my couch last night printing coupons...watching Vampire Diaries. Don't judge me! :)

TRIPLE coupons start tomorrow. This means any coupon LESS than $1 will triple in value. So a .75 cent coupon would be worth $2.25, .50 cent would be worth $1.50 and so on.

You can see all of my previous posts about Harris Teeter here: Harris Teeter Past Adventures and Tips. It seems that this is VERY rare, as I only remember this happening once in the past year or so, as compared to the Super Double event that happens a lot!

For this specific coupon event, I've printed most of the coupons using my trusty Coupon Printer!

To show you my obsession, I may have discussed going BEFORE work tomorrow so I can be sure to beat the crowds...and then maybe again on Thursday if I can't do it all in one trip! I would say I need a hobby...but this is it!

16 May 2011

As you may or may not have heard from the Guinness Book of World Records, I've been invited to 9....NINE...weddings this summer. Unfortunately, I can't go to them all as my calendar (and checking account) both have a finite amount of days, and dollars in them. But of course, I want to get presents for all the newlyweds - but how to get them, without spending all of my hard earned money? (I don't think my mother's suggestion of making them baskets of all my free toiletries is quite appropriate for these events! Ha)

After seeing where everyone is registered, and determining the price of the gift you want to purchase, I make a list of all of the places I need go, and see which wedding registrys match up so I can combine my shopping adventures (might as well save time too!).

My BIGGEST suggestion, try (if possible) to go to Bed, Bath and Beyond. If you don't know this, they have about a billion 20% off one item coupons floating around (usually in the ads of the Sunday paper).

If you have 5 items, you can use 5 of those coupons and so on. AND they accept expired coupons, forever! So if you want to get a $50 gift, you can find your item, and use a coupon, so you actually would only pay $40! Huzzah. I know that my future sister-in-law specifically switched some of their items to their Bed, Bath and Beyond so that her guests could save some extra cash, which is awesome!

What if they aren't registered there? Now this is something I just learned to do recently, thanks to my mama. If you find a gift CHEAPER somewhere else (where they aren't registered), you can just call where they ARE registered, and ask them to remove it from the registry. Amazing. So if they are registered at Macy's, and you find the dishes cheaper at Kohl's, you can buy it at Kohl's, then call Macy's to ask them to remove it from the registry. Who knew?!

Of course, always watch your paper for coupons - often Macy's has great sales and coupons in the paper. And it NEVER hurts to ask when you are checking out if there are any coupons out there that you are missing. Often, the cashier will have something that may give you a small discount!

And of course, if you are ever buying anything online, always search for codes, and get cash back :)

For shower gifts and smaller, personalized items, I recommend looking for cute things on Etsy!

03 May 2011

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I don't know how I got this little Twitter bird above this line of text, but I love it. Tweet tweet or HOOT hoot :)

So the wild world of Twitter can be a very scary place as there are nearly...a bajillion people to follow. As I've mentioned before, I love Twitter and think it is a HUGE tool you can use for things like FREE stuff, customer service issues, giving postivite feedback, etc.

Here are a few people that I recommend, that will be EXCELLENT references for deals and coupons, but it won't completely take over your life/Twitter feed.